exM20K

@Seth congrats on completing a hat trick of kids. Before abandoning the Mooney, you might consider exactly how many full-family trips you will make as the kids grow up in the next few years. With our 2, once they were into middle school, the activities started to collide with our travel plans- think travel sports, gymnastics, ballet etc. we found it impossible to make the quick trips that we used to when they were younger. We wound up with one or two big trips a year, usually in the RV. The six seaters you mentioned will probably be insufficient at the outset or very soon. Kids, diaper bags, strollers, etc and later they just keep getting bigger. So at first, you cube out, and later you weight out. Depending on you range requirements, a big twin like a Navajo would work, but if your trip is long, it’s too slow and burns too much gas to have a lot of range. I meandered into the pressurized twin Cessna cult for a bit, did a prebuy on a RAM VII 340, and then flew it. I know, not the right orderin which to do things. After the flight, I ran away. The plane was so inferior to my acclaim that it wasn’t even close. If you do go down the twin Cessna route, I can report a very good experience with TAS Aviation in Defiance, OH. They are expensive but also knowledgeable and comprehensive in the scope of what you need for a successful ownership experience. Good luck. -dan

Ditto. Learned quickly not to use block ice in the b-cool. Block slides around and dislodges the bilge pump. also wired a breaker’d outlet to the #1 battery. 80% solution for 1% cost. -dan

Both of my spawn used the Sporty’s PP course and did very well with it. It is multi platform and well produced. However, the teenage mind may absorb information differently. I was impressed with what I saw and the results. Private and instrument are courses where you want to master the materials and not just the test. I did Sheppard for ATP because that was a master-the-test situation. I’d not go that route for the foundational stuff. Good luck and enjoy the journey. Instrument rating will transform you flying so much. -dan

if your Colorado destination is east of the front range, the Ovation would be a good choice. The Kelly aerospace A/C is preferable to the factory unit because it is A little lighter positioned aft (better for CG) can be run via external power when you’re on the ground is not driven off the fragile and expensive starter adapter has the potential for very little net weight increase if you can get approval to replace the two AGM batteries back there with lithium. The Bravo that you found is interesting. The DX Bravo’s had the GX low panel, IIRC, which is great for forward visibility. I can’t tell from the photos if that is the case here. If you want to undertake a project, you could craft a really clean panel with all the new stuff. What’s the current UL? I have just under 900#, and that is mostly adequate for two people and bags for our 90% trip of 735 NM. That price, however, is getting pretty close to an Acclaim. -dan

I don’t know about that. They have been sending me AOPA Pilot for years after I let my membership lapse. No doubt their advertising rate card is influenced by how many copies go out. I recently listened to a very interesting podcast from Sporty’s with the new owner of flying magazine. His business model is interesting as explained…. Big content library, which is worth something for sure, but also a focus on subscription revenue rather than advertising. He intends to do this with more expensive subscriptions in return for high quality content. I hope he succeeds. I will update with a link if I can find it.. edit: https://www.sportys.com/blog/episode-42-why-ga-is-experiencing-a-renaissance-with-flying-magazines-craig-fuller/ -dan

Regarding Scott's Miracle-Gro... The former owner of the company owned a Bravo that I frequently saw at KBED when I worked up that way in the early 2000's. It was painted Miracle Gro yellow and had a tail number ending in MG. (there: Mooney Content!)

truly. it appears this organization has become a vehicle for enriching the top employees. mark Baker's bio from AOPA website: Prior to his appointment at AOPA, Baker served in numerous senior executive roles, including chief operating officer at Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, president and CEO of outdoor outfitter Gander Mountain Company, and chief merchandizing officer and executive vice president for The Home Depot. Most recently, he served as CEO of Orchard Supply Hardware Stores Corp., a leading retailer of home improvement and garden products. Ok, fine. these are for-profit companies with, i'm sure, well-established performance metrics. Quite a bit different from AOPA. He uses his extensive business experience to help AOPA build value for its members, with a special emphasis on aligning association resources with member priorities. Uh Huh. Show your work. This is NRA-level astonishing. I serve as president of our State dealer association with my compensation approximately $1,628,359 less than Mr. Baker's. I must be doing it wrong. Thanks for posting. -dan

“Bravo” spans a lot of cost and capability. Maybe narrowing it down in terms of budget Glass Panel must have, nice to have, don’t care TKS/FIKI AC you just might find a suitable plane quietly for sale here. the received wisdom around here is that it’s generally when considering cost and downtime to purchase a plane with the equipment you want rather than doing the upgrades post purchase Enjoy the search, and +1 on pros like Jimmy garrison (all American aircraft) or Richard simile (thunderbird.) they will know of good planes coming up for sale before they hit controller. -dan

There was an A* flying a similar route 2000 higher than me today. He was a solid 20 knots faster than me (10%), though I dunno what sort of power setting he was using. https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N702EL Having convenient specialists to maintain these legacy twins is probably the difference between a good experience and bad. Being a hands on kind of owner, if you have the skills, is also a good thing. I wandered into the pressurized twin Cessna cult recently, spent some money evaluating a plane, and elected to stay with the devil I know. Enjoy the A*. They are awesome.

Aerostar. Just don't plan on operating out of short fields, and prepare to put your maintenance technician's kids through college. Purchase price for some of the turbine twins is low, but if you're being honest with yourself, the total cost of ownership is going to be a big multiple of the Mooney TCO. -dan

That sounds high for SVT but serves as a reminder: don’t lose your SVT unlock card! you have %power via fuel flow multiplier if you’re flying LOP, which of course all the cool kids do. I don’t remember what it is for higher compression engines, but it’s better than the 13.7 we use for the turbos. -dan

My engine eats EGT probes like they’re free. TIT probe is the same, just 1/6 as often. What you describe is typical of the failure mode I’ve experienced. They start out reading low, then they wig out, then they “X” out. Probably a good idea to have a spare. In the PA46 world, I believe they are 500 hour replacement items. Dunno if that is in the MX manual or received wisdom within the tribe. -dan

Since @mike_elliott is too busy to (or afraid to) fly with me tomorrow, I’m going to spend a couple hours solo going through the SFO drills from @Buster1 Nate’s excellent book. I really wanted to try this under the hood with SVT, but unless anyone wants to fly with me within an hour of AAF, I’ll do it solo. I try to do this every six months or so, and had a great time with Parvez Darva running through these repeatedly at a MAPASF PPP. I do believe that SVT can be a game changer if you can glide maneuver into the cone of good outcomes. -dan

Tough spot to be in. I think I heard him say the engine was over-revving at one point, which would be consistent with loss of OP. From where he was when the incident started, he was high and set up on a long final for 34, but the ceilings were below ILS 34 minimums. There’s just not a lot of options where and when this happened. One of the most jarring things here is how close they were to pulling it off. 1 mile final and a couple hundred MORE feet of altitude, and they would have had an awesome “so there I was” story. RIP

That is what I’m thinking will be the case. How one handles the last foot or two landing a Mooney, especially the long body, makes all the difference. Finishing with the yoke all the way back helps tremendously, and having a true 600 RMP idle are vital to not forcing the nose down. My landings were crap for a while , and I couldn’t figure out why until I noticed that the aftermarket throttle required a hard pull to get to idle. 1000-1100 rpm will add substantial float.

Question for @LANCECASPER @donkaye and the other long body LHS owners: I purchased a system and will have it installed at annual this month. My landing technique is 70-75 KIAS Vref, cross the threshold at 1.2 Vso, roll in up trim and roll out throttle in the flare. How do you make use of the altitude callouts in landing? Day/night differences? looking forward to experimenting. -dan

If your 80% mission is big runway to big runway, and those runways are not really far apart, the Vision Jet may be more suitable than the tight cabin of a TBM or P46T. Lucky for me, my 80% mission is short runway (with no Jet-A) to medium runway, and they are 750 NM apart, so I don’t have to struggle with which to buy. Acclaim is as well or better suited than anything else, save for the PA46, but that won’t fit in either hangar. Whew. No more looking at airplanes for me! -dan

If your data recorder includes pitch, that would be interesting to see. The factory gauges on my Acclaim are very pitch sensitive, reading higher and lower with pitch up/down. For long trips, I will often try to run one tank down to 8gallons which is where, in level flight, the low fuel annunciation illuminates. But since that is often in a descent, it puts me back on my calculated fuel tally. If the CIES probes are mounted in the same locations as the factory ones, how would one calibrate without leveling the plane on jacks? -dan

Brightens or Dims the screen in high or low light conditions

Same here. Haven’t found a solution.

with an O2D2, i refill maybe once a year and fly on 02 1-2 people probably 70 hours per year

If you're a foreflight performance plus or higher subscriber, you can download the performance profiles which are built from the POH. With TKS, I back the speeds off 5%. For W&B, My plane (TKS, No A/C) is Basic Empty CG (in) 45.518 Basic Empty Weight (lbs) 2490 The 310 HP Acclaim Type S was built off my poh. -dan

Lowest power settings in the POH Tailwind 50-60 knots according to windy. 7.7 hrs at 10-11 GPH. Plus climb fuel. Doable, just not w/pax you want to fly with you again.

Ditto the acclaim. I do know one guy who flies ROP lat 21+ GPH to get very high TAS numbers, but most don’t. There are two major differences with respect to performance vs the acclaim for both the Rocket and Bravo. Acclaim cowling is cleaner than either. The cowling is optimized not to need cowl flaps and is a much more modern design, and the Type S changes are meaningful. It’s my understanding that Bravo’s will fly LOP. All Acclaims will very happily. Not sure about TSIO520NB lop. Vs the long body planes, the mid body must generate more downforce to balance the heavy engine, which creates more drag. Speed reports without corresponding fuel flows are meaningless. My plane can be a 210 KTAS 16.5 GPH at 16-17,000, or it can be 220 KTAS at 21 GPH. I don’t find that juice worth the squeeze. TKS costs 8-10 KTAS. I do find that juice worth the squeeze. i imagine being able to sustain 12-1500 FPM climbs (310 HP) does more to shorten a trip than does a 5-10% cruise difference. -dan

2009 acclaim. So likely the newer version. Thanks